Fair Wage for Carers.

As the NHS lurches from one crisis to another, there appears to be little in the way of sorting out bed-blocking. This is caused by the inability to move patients, who no longer need hospital care, out of hospital into the community or residential care. One of the stumbling blocks is the lack of care workers. There are currently 165,000 vacancies in social care - up 55,000 since last year in England alone.

The first step to fixing this mess is to pay those working in social care more, to prevent the exodus of workers to supermarkets and other better paid jobs. I have seen first-hand the incredible job that care workers do day in and day out. This is a skilled and crucial job, and it should be paid more. About 35,000 workers are employed in Hampshire. Yet the latest figures reveal over 3500 vacancies with a vacancy rate of around 10%.

One way to tackle this shortage is to pay a higher minimum wage. Around 1 in 3 care workers are paid the minimum wage. The Liberal Democrats have suggested that social care workers should be paid at least £2 an hour more than the current minimum wage, bringing their pay up to at least £11.50 an hour today - and £12.42 from this April. How to pay for it? Increase the Remote Gaming Duty. Gambling costs us through a combination of harms billions of pounds yet we do not recover these costs from gambling firms.

The social care crisis is contributing to record long waits at A&E and terrible ambulance delays. Enough of years of broken promises. The Conservatives' neglect of social care services has caused an exodus of staff to better paid jobs. A Carer's Minimum Wage would help tackle these chronic staff shortages and take pressure off the NHS.